Smoke control in case of fire in a large car park: CFD simulations of full-scale configurations

Deckers, Xavier; Haga, Siri Johanne; Tilley, Nele; Merci, Bart

doi:10.1016/j.firesaf.2012.02.005

Cited by 61 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…If the fire source happens to be located in such a recirculation or stagnation zone, the smoke and heat are not effectively removed. Even worse, in such circumstances, an increase in extraction rate does not always help to remove the smoke [9,10]. This confirms that a single value, be it a velocity or an extraction flow rate, is not sufficient to quantify the performance of an SHC system under such conditions.…”

Section: B a Car Park Is Not A Tunnelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such large differences in existing standards served as motivation for the present research. In [9,10], it is argued that the values in [17,19] are more appropriate numbers, in the context of fire fighters approaching the fire source along a smoke-free access path up to a distance of 15m or less. The reader is referred to those papers for more detail.…”

Section: Smoke and Heat Control By Horizontal Mechanical Ventilation mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this is a severe misconception, for a number of reasons. While details of the experimental and simulation studies are found in [9,10], the most important differences between car parks and tunnels, in the context of smoke and heat control in case of fire, are listed here.…”

Section: B a Car Park Is Not A Tunnelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second condition requires more care, since flow patterns must be considered. These aspects are discussed now, starting from full-scale experiments [9] and CFD simulations [10]. As mentioned in the previous section, it is not claimed that CFD calculations are always required to design or optimize SHC systems in car parks.…”

Section: Main Effects Of Horizontal Mechanical Ventilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Next, some fundamental differences from (longitudinal) mechanical ventilation in tunnels are described. This discussion is supported by full-scale car park fire experiments [9], numerical Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations [10] and reduced-scale experiments [11]. The reader is referred to the references mentioned for more details on these campaigns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Smoke and heat control for fires in large car parks: Lessons learnt from research?

Merci

Shipp

2013

Fire Safety Journal

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This paper focuses on car park fire safety, more particularly on fire and smoke (and heat) dynamics. The first part deals with the choice of design fire, based on recent full-scale car fire experiments with modern cars and different set-ups. Different aspects of smoke and heat control (SHC) systems are then discussed from the perspective of smoke (and heat) dynamics. The focus is mainly on the effect of horizontal mechanical ventilation, a popular technique, on the smoke and heat, generated by the fire source. Some fundamental differences from (longitudinal) mechanical ventilation in tunnels are described. Possible effects of water (sprinklers, water mist or from a fire brigade intervention), as well as some possible routes for further research, are briefly commented.

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Section: B a Car Park Is Not A Tunnelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Smoke and Heat Control By Horizontal Mechanical Ventilation mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: B a Car Park Is Not A Tunnelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Main Effects Of Horizontal Mechanical Ventilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Smoke and heat control for fires in large car parks: Lessons learnt from research?

Merci

Shipp

2013

Fire Safety Journal

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Thermal effect on surrounding combustibles in minivan passenger car fires

et al. 2018

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Summary In the fire safety design of parking lots and buildings, estimating the possibility of fire spreading to surrounding combustibles, such as neighboring buildings and cars, is essential. The ignition possibility to surrounding combustibles can be predicted from the heat flux from a burning car to the combustibles. In this study, we conducted 2 full‐scale car fire experiments using minivan passenger cars and measured the heat fluxes to their surroundings. The cars were ignited at the rear bumper with 80 g of alcohol gel fuel. The windows were closed. Heat flux gauges were placed around the car to measure the heat flux in various directions. Cedar boards were placed next to the gauges, and burn damage to the boards was observed. When the windows shattered in succession, combustion in the passenger compartment became larger. At a distance of 50 cm from the burning car, the heat flux was greater than 40 kW/m2, and most of the cedar boards were completely burned. At a distance of 1 m, the heat flux was 10 to 20 kW/m2, and some of the cedar boards were burned. We devised a method for modeling the shape and temperature of flames in the burning cars. Furthermore, we propose a method for calculating heat fluxes in the lateral direction of the burning minivan passenger car, and we compared the calculated and measured heat fluxes as a means of verifying the proposed method. The shape of flame in the burning car was approximated as a rectangular prism to calculate the heat flux. The calculation results were in good agreement with the experimental results. The proposed method is expected to be useful for fire safety engineering.

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Full-Scale Experiments of Fire Control and Suppression in Enclosed Car Parks: A Comparison Between Sprinkler and Water-Mist Systems

2016

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Recent efforts to investigate car-park fires and understand the related mechanisms have fostered the need for analyses of suppression performance against this type of fire scenario. This work aims at providing an insight into the ability of sprinklers and water-mist systems to control and extinguish a fire within an enclosed car park through a series of real-scale experiments. Three cars were employed in each test: the central one was ignited by a heptane pool fire and the adjacent ones served as targets. Two configurations were explored: in the first one, a nozzle was placed directly at the vertical axis of the ignition source, whereas the ignition source was located between the area coverage of four nozzles in the second one. The sprinkler system mainly served as a reference; two values of discharge density were evaluated for water mist at high operative pressure and a biodegradable surfactant was also tested against the most challenging configuration. A quantitative analysis of free-burn and discharge phases by temperature measurements was coupled with radiant heat-flux measurements and an assessment of post-fire damage. Sprinkler and water-mist systems were capable of containing the fire spread and thermally controlling the fire, thus preventing structural damage. The water mist’s ability to overpower the plume and reach the burning surfaces proved more effective than that of sprinklers, especially as no nozzles were located right above the ignition surface. The higher discharge density showed better capability of preventing re-ignition phenomena and suppression was attained in both the investigated configurations, which suggests that a certain amount of flux is also needed to achieve flame cooling. The additive had promising impact on suppression performance; however, more tests are required to specifically explore its ability to enhance thermal control

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Smoke control in case of fire in a large car park: CFD simulations of full-scale configurations

Cited by 61 publications

References 13 publications

Smoke and heat control for fires in large car parks: Lessons learnt from research?

Smoke and heat control for fires in large car parks: Lessons learnt from research?

Thermal effect on surrounding combustibles in minivan passenger car fires

Full-Scale Experiments of Fire Control and Suppression in Enclosed Car Parks: A Comparison Between Sprinkler and Water-Mist Systems

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